


Encumbrance - Plumbing

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1539]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:01:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22430749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Jimmy runs into a bit of a plumbing issue. He reaches out to Gibbs and Abby first, but they're not available, so he's stuck with Tony and Tim. Are they able to help him with the plumbing issue or is it beyond their abilities?
Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1539]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/444514
Kudos: 11
Collections: Cutsycat's Five Prompts Challenge





	Encumbrance - Plumbing

**Author's Note:**

> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 07/18/2003 for the word [encumbrance](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2003/07/18/encumbrance).
> 
> encumbrance[ en-kuhm-bruh ns ]  
> noun  
> something that encumbers; something burdensome, useless, or superfluous; burden; hindrance:  
> Poverty was a lifelong encumbrance.  
> a dependent person, especially a child.  
> Law. a burden or claim on property, as a mortgage.
> 
> This is for Prompt 3 of the January 2020 Five Prompts Challenge located [here](https://ncis-discuss.livejournal.com/249628.html).

“I need your help. I can’t get a hold of Gibbs,” Jimmy blurted as soon as Tony answered the phone.

“Sure, Jim-bo, no problem. What seems to be the matter?”

“Well that is, I don’t know exactly.”

“Come on, Jimmy, spit it out. I can’t help if I don’t know what the issue is.”

“There’s water everywhere?” Jimmy sounded confused. 

“Jimmy, where are you?” 

“My house. Breena already took Victoria to safety and left me to figure out how to fix this disaster.”

“Ok. I’ll be right there. See if you can get anyone else to come over. It sounds like we’ll need all hands on deck,” Tony suggested.

“You got it, Tony.” 

Tony sighed and changed into his jeans. He wasn’t sure what he was getting himself into, but it sounded messy. He kind of wished he was like Gibbs and had all the tools needed to handle any household problem. Alas, he would have to make do with what Jimmy had or run out to the store to get tools when he had a better idea of what the issue actually was.

Tony pulled into the driveway of the cozy two bedroom house that Breena and Jimmy shared with little Victoria. He rang the doorbell and waited for Jimmy to answer it. Nothing looked wrong from the outside, so it must be something inside. 

Jimmy opened the door and Tony immediately noticed the problem. “Well that’s quite an encumbrance. Where is it coming from?”

“I have no idea.”

Tony watched the flood taking over the house and shook his head. They were going to need some major help. “Did you get a hold of anyone else?”

Jimmy nodded. “Tim should be here shortly. I couldn’t get a hold of anyone else.”

“Alright. First things first. Do you have any food coloring?” Tony asked.

“Uh.” Jimmy blinked in shock, not expecting that question. “Why?”

“If we dump some in the water, we can see what direction it’s flowing and trace it back to the source of the water.”

“That’s a great idea. Let’s see what we can find that will work for that,” Jimmy agreed.

“Uh. I think I’ll stay over here where it’s dry,” Tony suggested. “Why don’t you see what direction it’s coming from and let me know when you figure out the source?”

“I thought you were here to help,” Jimmy protested.

“I am.” Tony ignored Jimmy’s protests and continued, “We’re also going to need some buckets to get rid of this excess water once we fix the cause of the leak. We may need to get rid of the water before the leak is fixed to prevent the house from floating away.”

“Buckets are in the utility closet right there,” Jimmy pointed to a closet not far away from Tony. 

Tony glanced over and frowned there was still a considerable amount of water that he would need to tromp through. “I should have brought the NCIS rain suits. Did you give McGee a heads up that he would need protection from the water?”

“Nope.”

Tony dialed McGee, when he answered, Tony ordered, “Stop by NCIS and pick up rain gear for you and me, Tim.”

“What? Why?”

“Trust me. You’ll want it when you get to Jimmy’s house and I wish I had mine hence asking you to pick up some for both of us.”

“This better not be a prank, Tony,” McGee warned.

“Just do it, McGee,” Tony sighed and hung up.

Jimmy reappeared holding a bottle of soy sauce. “Hey do you think this will work to tell us the direction the water is flowing?”

“Never hurts to try it. Let’s see and find out.” 

“So I just dump some in?”

“Yep and then head the opposite direction it goes and keep repeating that until you find the source.”

Jimmy did as instructed. Moving slowly away from the soy sauce. “I feel like an idiot,” he called out.

“You’re doing fine. Keep it up.”

McGee finally arrived with the rain clothes and Tony breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank god. Give me that.” He snatched a pair of them out of McGee’s hands and started putting it on, including the rain boots.

“Wow. What happened here?” McGee asked, shocked at the state of Jimmy’s house.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out, Probie. It’s up to us to help fix this for Jimmy.”

“Where are Gibbs and Abby? They do this on a regular basis for Habitat for Humanity. Wouldn’t they be more help than us?”

“Unfortunately, Gibbs and Abby aren’t available. It’s just us. Now let’s go find the leak. Jimmy’s working to find the source and we should go catch up to him.”

McGee donned his rain clothes and followed Tony as they trooped through the knee deep water and was grateful that it wasn’t deeper than that. 

“Oh. Buckets are in that closet if you want to start bailing water out of the house.”

“I’ll stick with you for now.”

“Suit yourself.” Tony shrugged.

They quickly caught up to Jimmy who found the water seemed to be coming from a wall. “Now what?”

“Now, we call an emergency plumber.” Tony pulled out his phone and dialed 411 to get the number of a plumber.

“If we were just going to call a plumber, why didn’t we do that when you first arrived?”

“I was hoping it was something simple like a sink left on or the tub overflowing.” Tony shrugged.

While Tony explained the situation to the plumber that he finally got a hold of, Tim and Jimmy exchanged glances. They waited until he was off the phone and pocketed it securely before they jumped him at the same time sending all three of them tumbling into the water. 

“Hey!” Tony protested.

“This is what you get for not suggesting that earlier and wasting our time.”

“I wanted to try it ourselves first. You know Abby and Gibbs would totally know how to fix this without a plumbers help.”

“Yeah. Too bad they weren’t available. This will definitely be the more expensive option. I’m sure it’s a minimum of $100,” McGee pointed out.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got it covered.” 

Jimmy and Tim both shook their heads at Tony. 

“Well since we’re letting the plumber deal with this. I’m going to go back to the video game I was in the middle of when you called,” McGee murmured starting to head out the door.

“Wait! We might need you to bail water,” Jimmy blurted. 

McGee glanced at them and then at the door and sighed. “Yeah, ok.”

Jimmy shivered.

“Damn, man. You’re going to catch hypothermia at this rate. We better call Ducky.”

“I’m fine.”

“No. You’re not. I’m calling, Ducky. We’re going to need some serious help to counteract any hypothermia you have going on. If your house wasn’t flooded I’d tell you to change into warmer clothes, but it would be pointless until this is cleaned up. Hopefully, Ducky has something that will help.”

Jimmy glared at Tony, but Tony ignored him as he called Ducky and told him that Jimmy’s house flooded and Jimmy might have hypothermia. 

“Oh dear. I shall be right there.”

“Thanks, Ducky.”

“Just do your best until I get there.”

“Will do. See you soon, Ducky,” Tony agreed as he hung up.

“Let’s go sit outside and wait for the plumber. Maybe you’ll warm up in the sun.”

The three of them tromped outside and Tony grabbed a blanket from his car to wrap around Jimmy. It didn’t really help much, but Tony wasn’t sure what else they could do. 

Ducky arrived before the plumber and tutted at the three of them. “I hope you’re planning to replace a bunch of your appliances. Most things don’t do well in water.”

“Yeah.” Jimmy frowned. “I hope the home insurance will cover some of it, but even still it’s going to be expensive.”

“You should call your insurance company now. They’ll want to do their own inspection.” Tony pointed out.

Jimmy fished out his cellphone and handed it to Tony. “Can you call them for me?” he asked as his teeth chattered.

“Sure. Is your policy info on your phone?”

“In the downloads,” Jimmy stuttered out between his shivers.

The plumber finally showed up and Ducky gestured McGee to show the plumber what they found. The plumber gasped in shock at the amount of water on the floor. When he finally came back out, he shook his head. “It’s not good news, man.”

“Insurance inspector is on the way.”

“Good. I’ll work with him to get this all figured out, but you guys should find another place to stay for a while. It will take at least a day to get this back and all the water cleaned out.”

Just then Abby and Gibbs showed up. “Oh my god, you guys. What happened?” Abby gasped as she stared at the three sitting on the porch and the water visible through the door in the house behind them.

“Burst pipe,” the plumber muttered. 

“Oh dear. Where will you stay?”

Jimmy shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“You and Breena, my house, tonight,” Gibbs barked.

“Uh. Ok, Agent Gibbs,” Jimmy coughed. 

“And you two, we’re going to talk about your abilities with plumbing later,” Gibbs glared at Tony and McGee.

“You got it, boss.”

“Tony, can you handle the plumber and the insurance people for Jimmy? It would really be best if he could get warmed up, which is best done at Gibbs.”

Tony waved Ducky off. “I’ve got this.” Tony transferred the information he would need from Jimmy’s phone to his and handed Jimmy’s phone back to him.

Ducky grabbed the phone and called Breena to tell her what was going on. She agreed to meet them at Gibbs’ house. With the exception of Tony, pretty much everyone headed over to Gibbs’ in an impromptu team get together to cheer Jimmy and Breena up. Tony joined them later once he got the plumber and insurance inspector all dealt with. 

Gibbs chuckled and declared, “Team sleepover.”

That night they all slept in a huge pile on the floor to warm up Jimmy with Ducky and Breena closest to him. They were all just one big happy family, but Tony and Tim definitely didn’t win any awards as plumbers.

**Author's Note:**

> The dictionary.com series has no stories already written for it after this one, so I will be posting at least no more stories before I stop posting again. I'm hoping to get more stories written before then, so that I don't stop posting for a while. Wish me luck! 
> 
> The 2020 Prompts are open now! Go forth and prompt me! [Click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2020/profile) to add your prompts to my 2020 Prompt Collection. Just click the sign up link. ;) I'm hoping to complete all the 2020 prompts by the end of 2021. 
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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